No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

I am invariably of the politics of the people at whose table I sit, or beneath whose roof I sleep.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.